The Neighbors
These unnamed church Goodies, commonly referred to as the Neighbors, are two major antagonists in the Brazillian movie Menino Maluquinho 2: A Aventura (The Nutty Boy 2: The Adventure). Expert gossipers, they mistake the main protagonist Maluquinho's new friend, the Tatá Mirim, for the Devil, and are fearful of the damage it may bring. They were portrayed by Lu Grimaldi and Claudia Schapira. Biography Spying These two women are neighbors to Maluquinho's grandparents, and are often seen at their windowsill, overlooking their sunflower garden. One day while visiting his grandfather at a small town in Minas Gerais, Maluquinho and his friends befriend a mystical being known as the Tatá Mirim ("young fire" in Tupi, a native-indian language of Brazil), a living fireball that came from the center of the Earth, and that shares the boys' mischievousness. While the boys keep its existence a secret from everyone in the town, the two Goodies cannot help but notice odd events happening around them, such as sightings of a fireball floating around the other house's yard, a massive amount of popcorn outside the same house (the result of a popcorn party the boys made with their new friend), and the sunflowers in their garden growing much more lively than usual, especially since they are still in winter. Being heavily religious, this eventually leads them into believing that these events were created by a demon, and fear leads them into fanaticism. Taking it too far Allying themselves with a local inhabitant named Zé, who had a direct experience with the creature and the boys, they seek help from a local priest and tell him all about the recent events, but he predictably does not believe them. Angered, they gather some of the town's population into an angry mob (against the priest's judgement) and storm Maluquinho's grandparents' house, chasing after the boy and his friends with pitchforks and torches, accusing them of harboring the "demon" into their home. The chase eventually leads to a bridge over a river, where the boys are cornered by the mob and an approaching train, but are saved by Tatá Mirim in the nick of time, leaving the mob confused about what just happened, but still makes them convinced they drove the demon away. The following day, the date of the town's centennial, the two Goodies see their sunflowers withering, indicating the "demon's" presence is gone for good. However, the priest calls them to the church and tells them that their reward is to spend over a month in a religious retire, to which they are clearly unhappy about. As the movie's plot is revealed to be a story told by Maluquinho to his classmates, two of the school's teachers are shown noticing how odd it is that the sunflowers look so lively despite winter, but chuckling gently at the fact. Personality The two goodies are shown to be overly-zealous women that, while claiming once to Maluquinho's grandmother that they don't spy on other people's lives, are constantly seen jumping into conclusions too quickly after hearing whereabouts or seeing things they don't know the reason for. Furthermore, their religious ties often get in the way of their line of thinking, leading eventually into fanaticism and blaming the Devil for most odd incidents. The end of the movie shows that the whole plot was a story told by Maluquinho, and the two Goodies are revealed to have been based off two of his teachers, but it is unknown how exactly they tie to the Goodies in his story aside from their appearance. Category:Female Category:Fanatics Category:Movie Villains Category:Live Action Villains Category:Stalkers Category:Nameless